It's official: Manchester is Britain's boom city

Manchester has cemented its place as Britain’s most thriving city after its population grew by a fifth over the last decade. The Census has revealed Manchester’s 19 per cent population growth to be almost three times more than the national average.

Manchester has cemented its place as Britain’s most thriving city after its population grew by a fifth over the last decade.

The Census has revealed Manchester’s 19 per cent population growth to be almost three times more than the national average.

And it shows that the number of 20 to 30-year-olds coming to the city has soared, with 123,600 living here compared to 78,301 10 years ago.

The Census, taken last year, records Manchester’s population as 503,100 - an increase of 80,400 since the last survey in 2001. It is the third biggest rise in England - and the biggest percentage growth for a city - behind the London boroughs of Newham and Tower Hamlets.

The council says the figures show its regeneration efforts have transformed Manchester into a thriving place to live and work. Experts say the huge increase is due to a hike in the number of people travelling from other parts of the country to study and work in Manchester, as well as people coming to the city from Europe and elsewhere.

Manchester council leader Sir Richard Leese said: “A growing population reflects a thriving city so it is excellent news that more people are seeing the attractions of Manchester as a place to work, live and invest.

“Manchester had undergone a long period of population decline but the reversal of this trend in the last decade is a testament to the way the city has established itself as a world-class international city. Population growth brings with it many opportunities but the challenge ahead is to ensure that we have the services and infrastructure which meet the needs of the growing population so that the city can reach its full potential.”

Elsewhere in the region Salford, Trafford, Bolton and Wigan saw increases in line with the national average of seven per cent.

There were smaller rises of around three per cent in Bury, Rochdale, Tameside and Oldham.

The number of people living in Stockport fell by 0.5 per cent.

In Manchester, the birth rate has also increased, with 36,400 children aged four or under recorded last year compared to 24,693 in 2001. The number of over-65s has bucked the national trend, failing to rise despite an ageing population nationally.

Only nine per cent of Manchester’s residents are retirement age.

Dr Steve Millington, an expert in human geography at Manchester Metropolitan University, said it was good news for the city.

He added: “Not only are they attracting more people, those people are of working age so as long as they do work they will fuel the local economy and start to balance out the deprivation in the city. However the city must also make provision for the growth of the population by increasing healthcare, school places and other services. The next step for the council is to make sure they retain older working people within the city boundaries, by creating attractive neighbourhoods with larger houses close to the city boundaries rather than building more high-rise apartment blocks.”

He warned that numbers could fall when students are faced with rising university tuition fees from September. Town hall bosses had aimed to increase the city’s population to 480,000 by 2015. The Census results show they have already surpassed that.

The M.E.N. revealed last month that Manchester is expecting to have another 80,000 residents by 2027.

Nationally, the Census records the largest growth in numbers in any decade since records began, the Office for National Statistics said. There were 56.1m people living in England and Wales on the day of Census – March 27 last year – an increase of 3.7m since 2001, when there were 52.4m.

The total population figure was about half a million bigger than estimates had shown a year earlier. The Census paints a picture of an ageing population with one in six people in England and Wales in 2011 aged 65 and over.

Across England and Wales 430,000 people were aged 90 and over, compared with only 13,000 when the Census was carried out 100 years earlier in 1911. The number of women over 90 was 315,000, nearly three times higher than the number of men over that age, at 114,000.

The average age of the population has increased to 39 in 2011, up from 35 in 2001 and 25 in 1911. But there was also an increase in the number of under fives, with more than 400,000 more in 2011 than in 2001.

Town hall bosses who dared to dream

Manchester has been unashamed in its ambition to grow into a world class city, which is why those at the top of the town hall will be over the moon with the endorsement the Census provides.

The figures have exceeded the expectations of even the most senior officers and politicians and show that what Manchester sets its mind to, it achieves.

The fact that our population boom is almost three times the national average is a reflection not only of the city's many parts – public and private sector, education, culture – but of the way they work together to create a place where people want to be.

The biggest growth includes the graduate age range and age of young professionals which shows that working with universities and businesses to combat 'brain drain', and preventing the best talents heading south, is also paying off.

There is no doubt that growth on a major scale was planned for and necessary – Manchester's record for regeneration over the past 15 years has been a shining example of urban rebirth. But it would be naive to pretend the city has been completely prepared in every way.

The pressure of a bigger than expected population swell has been felt in the demand for housing, school places and healthcare – a problem exacerbated, since 2008, by the recession and cuts in government funding.

Thousands of people are on housing waiting lists while the rental sector in the city centre cannot keep up with demand, from graduates and young professionals in particular – the very people the city has sought to attract. Meanwhile, the effect on primary schools has left parents battling to find places for their children and the town hall is having to think quick to come up with enough desks.

Confirmation of the scale of Manchester's growth will prove a valuable tool when it comes to securing future funding from government and creating the neighbourhoods needed to ensure that those are problems of the past when we celebrate another boom in 2022.

Why our city is now the place to be
:

Airport
From Amsterdam to Barcelona, every world class city has a world class airport – and Manchester has worked hard to join that elite league. More major airlines than ever are now flying from Manchester – opening up a wealth of new routes and opportunities to attract visitors and investors to the city. Despite the recession, passenger figures remain strong, rising by over five per cent in the last year to 19.4m. Bosses have embarked on a campaign to win back long-haul travellers from London airports – introducing more direct flights to far-flung destinations. Growth has also been fuelled by services to the United States and Middle East. And the transformation from Manchester Airport from a regional transport hub into a world class international business destination in its own right is set to be sealed by the £650m Airport City development. The project will create up to 20,000 jobs over the next 15 years.

Business
Developing the growth industries of the future has been key to attracting more people to live and work in Manchester. The city has long proved itself to be ahead of the game in that respect, first as the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution and later as a world-leading centre for science and discovery that became home to the likes of atomic theorist John Dalton, physicist James Joule and the team behind the first stored-program computer. In recent years, city leaders have worked to nurture the sectors that will not only attract new people to Manchester but encourage others to stay, including those graduating from university. One key example of that is professional services, covering law firms, accountancy practices and banks. With more than 250,000 people working for 26,000 different companies across Greater Manchester, it now accounts for more than 20 per cent of all employment in the city region.
The digital and creative industries are also vital, with the development of MediaCityUK and other sites like the Sharp Project. Those plotting Manchester's future prosperity have also singled-out advanced manufacturing and biomedicine as key sectors for the future, with developments like The Corridor, in the city centre, and the University Hospital of South Manchester's MediPark scheme key to this strategy.

Music
Music fans choose to live in Manchester simply because there is so much going on – from the multitude of smaller live music venues, through the eclectic club scene, to the Manchester Arena, which is guaranteed to secure a slot with every big name on tour. The city has been a hive of musical activity since the beat boom of the 1960s. But the rule of thumb before the late Tony Wilson and others launched the independent Factory Records in 1979, was that, at the first whiff of success, the Manc pop star would decamp to the south. If Factory's acts, such as Joy Division, tended to highlight the industrial grimness of Manchester, its maverick business model was a ray of sunshine for many Mancunians inspired to join the creative industries. Another Factory enterprise, the Hacienda became, in the late 1980s, officially, the coolest club in the world, spawning another generation of Manc music stars such as the Happy Mondays. Then from 1989, when the Stone Roses' debut album was released, through the 1990s, when Oasis bestrode the pop world like a colossus, Manchester was it.
Londoners, the rumour went in the mid-1990s, were even feigning Manc accents. The legacy of so much Manchester music – from the giddy pop of Take That to the miserablist pinings of The Smiths – has resulted in a burgeoning live music scene that can not be heard anywhere else.

Sport
Wherever you went in the world and said you were from Manchester, up until City's astonishing revival, you were associated with United or indeed Sir Bobby Charlton.
Now, however, City have joined United in being a worldwide force and together, the big two have made Manchester the undisputed sporting capital. But its not just the Reds and Blues - Greater Manchester boasts the highest density of professional football in the world. There is also the two top Rugby League teams at Wigan and Salford together with the Rugby Union giants Sale Sharks. County cricket champions Lancashire Cricket Club are also just around the corner from the more famous Old Trafford home of United.
In fact, all sports be it squash, athletics, cycling, swimming or tennis have tip-top facilities thanks in part to the legacy from the 2002 Commonwealth Games.

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